* Rosary & Angelus are prayed half an hour before the early Masses on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays.
* Exposition & Confessions are offered before Mass on Saturdays from 7:15am and 5:15pm respectively and Confessions are at 4:45pm at Mary Immaculate.
* Exposition & Confessions are offered from 8:15am to 8:45am on Sundays at St John Fisher Church.
* All night Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament takes place each Thursday at St Elizabeth’s Chapel beginning at 6:00pm and ending at 6:45am on Fridays.

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I can’t express my gratitude enough to those who have been working hard to restore order in Mary Immaculate church. If you have a look at some of the photos I’ve just added to Flickr, you’ll see the beautifully cleaned southern wall (a far cry from what it looked like last Friday), and the pews have been given a refurb and are looking delightful.

I also can’t express my relief that the scaffolding is now going up to be able to cover the broken windows and at least cover the roof. The original damage was bad enough, but the threat of every subsequent shower of rain pouring through the broken tiles was very stressful. Please God, the roof covering will be done by the end of the day.

I was just able to go up the scaffolding to get a closer look at the roof, and was able to see just how damaged the tiles are. Apart from the holes and the broken tiles, many more are cracked.

On Thursday the carpets will be cleaned again to have them looking presentable for the wedding on Saturday afternoon (they are still very wet according to the carpet cleaner’s electronic machine). The pews will be returned to their positions on Thursday as well.

We are hoping to have the Mary Immaculate School end of year Mass in the Church on Friday morning. Weekend Masses should be able to happen in the church as normal. Obviously there are some things that are going to take much longer to fix, but at least the church will be usable and we can work around other things.

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I had heard someone say last night that there’d be a storm today, but I wasn’t expecting what we got.

All the parish buildings at Annerley have smashed windows and water damage. Everything facing south was in the line of fire. All the high lead-light windows in the Church along Ferndale Street are smashed, as are the windows on that side of the sanctuary. The water was coming through the roof of the church, and down the walls from the roof, and then through the broken windows, and flowed through the floor to the library and classroom below – where the windows were also smashed by the hail. The other buildings of the school also had their windows smashed. The parish office had most of its front windows smashed and water through the offices on that side. The convent had water through the roof. The presbytery’s front windows are all smashed. The tree at the front of the church came down, but thankfully fell over the path and not on the church or on Ipswich Road.

Reports are that there is no damage at Saint John Fisher Church, and I’ve had no reports of damage at Saint Elizabeth’s yet, although the power-line did come down near the chapel.

The school staff worked very hard to clean up the damage to the school. The repairers are currently boarding up the windows in the parish office to make it secure.

A bit of cleaning up to continue tomorrow.

At this stage, the 7:00am Mass at Saint Elizabeth’s on Friday morning is on, as per normal. Adoration tonight is suspended.

Mary Immaculate School will be closed on Friday 28 November due to the damage. Parents are asked to make alternative arrangements for your children.

Over the years, campaigns to stop drink driving have reminded us of our responsibility towards others. “Friends don’t let friends drink and drive,” and such like. If we truly are friends with someone, then we have a responsibility towards them.

Christians have a responsibility towards others as well. And each of our readings today reminds us of that responsibility. We could summarize those responsibilities as the responsibility to speak, to respect, and to heal.

In the first reading we hear of the responsibility to speak. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of being appointed by the Lord as “sentry to the House of Israel.” The role of a sentry, or watchman, was to warn of danger…